All the essential brain structures like
cortex develop before a baby is born. He is born with
millions of brain cells called neurons. Heredity and
pre-natal nutrition plays an important part in
determining the quality of those cells. These cells have
to be wired to other cells to regulate life. For
regulating the basics of life like breathing, action of
the heart to pump blood to the system, some of the brain
cells are already wired on birth. Most of the other cells
have to be stimulated to reach out to such cells which
show extra intelligence. Millions of such connections are
formed. It is in the first two years of the baby's life
that there is a explosion of brain growth with millions
of such connections coming into existence. During this
period cells which do not get connected and all those
which are not used, get discarded. There is a built in
programme of activating various systems of the body. At
age one month the baby responds to your tone and follows
a moving abject with his eyes. At 2 months he smiles and
stares at objects. At 3 months he is more aware of his
body and responds to conversation by smiling and moving.
At 4 months the baby is curious about all sights sounds
and people and recognises various objects like breasts
and bottles. At 5 months his concentration is developing
and makes movements to attention: At 6 months he makes
sounds and puts out his arms to be picked up. Knowing the
above mentioned activation programme of the baby, if we
provide stimulation to the brain cells in those areas,
the results will be encouraging. As an example, we know
that on birth the focussing ability of the baby is upto
20-25 cm and he follows objects with his eyes., you could
provide stimulation to the brain cells by holding the
baby at a distance of 20-25 cm from yourself. Sudden
appearance of a well-focused figure tickles him and he
concentrates on that figure. Concentration is the name of
the game. Brain cells are wired to other cells. His world
which was a confused blur of sight and sounds at first
now gets an attractive profile. The more he sees that
well-defined figure, the more he starts concentrating and
then observational ability continues to increase. If such
a growth occurs in all areas, the intelligence quotient
rises fast.
A baby is born with a definite number of brain cells but
his brain almost doubles in weight in the first 12
months. This increase in weight is due to the growth of
connections between the different cells used in thinking.
The greater and stronger the connections between the
brain cells and the faculties, more intelligent will that
baby be in later life.
The physical body operates through the five cognitive
sense organs, namely, the senses of sight, hearing,
touch, smell and taste. The entire world is perceived
through these sense organs. If the intensity of this
perception increases, there is intellectual growth. In
practical terms, we have to find out how we could
stimulate the brain cells relating to different senses so
that strong connections could grow amongst the cells
resulting in higher efficacy and higher intelligence.
Some examples of stimulation that could be provided to
the brain cells are given below:
The child is held at the focussing distance from the eye
and you look attentively at the face. Brain connections
bring the recognized pattern into focus and the child
starts separating what is known from what is not known or
what is the same.
Whenever parents speak to the child in full sentences, it
helps in increasing the vocabulary of the child in the
second year. It is interesting to weight this against the
folklore of certain parts of India where mother, when
left alone with the child, fodles him and continues
talking to him in complete sentences, full of adoration
and love. Such one-sided talk is, all the time, producing
connections of brain cells relating to vocabulary.
Bed time songs and lullabies help your child's brain
development. It had been realised centuries ago and the
mother's songs and lullabies, especially during the first
two years, have added to the brain power.
A child lying in the crib has his eyes fixed on various
articles. He has great curiosity about these articles
which he satisfies by touching, handling and tasting.
Such a curiosity should be encouraged. It establishes
many links amongst the brain cells and thus increases
intelligence.
At age 2 you may tell your child that this colour is
white, black or red and separate the colours while naming
them. Though the child cannot utter the name of the
colours but very soon he will be able to get you the
correct colour you ask for. Such an exercise is
simultaneously linking appropriate brain cells,
increasing his store of intelligence.
When you appreciate your child's achievements, it not
only pleases the child but also produces connections
between the front cortex and the seat of emotions. When
you thus make the child happy, many neurochemicals are
released in the brain which strengthen the circuits of
neurons.
The neural network develops tremendously during the first
two years of the child's life. It continues to develop
thereafter into teenage and adulthood also. In the early
years there are millions of neural networks available and
therefore learning new languages or skills is easy but
not so in later years when such networks are not
available easily.
The American Psychological Association appointed a team
to examine hereditary, i.e., genetic versus environmental
influences on intelligence. That team reported that both
the genes and environment played important roles in
determining the intelligence of the child. This stands to
reason because the quality of the brain cells is
determined both by the genes and by pre-natal nutrition.
Stimulation of these cells depends on the environment
including the effort of the parents. Proper stimulating
atmosphere for casual learning alone will update the I.Q.
of the child.
It now stands established that if your baby as a grown up
child, talk to him in proper language, cut jokes, make
fun, laugh, sing, dance to him, read books to him and all
that when he cannot talk and sometimes not even respond,
such parental attention helps in constructing the complex
brain circuitry so essential to intellectual development.
Early stimulation develops intelligence in the child. It
would be appropriate to provide such stimulation relating
to senses of smell, taste and touch, also showing how
various tastes touches and smells are different.
Some other examples of the manner in which the brain
cells could be stimulated to reach out to other cells,
which show extra intelligence, for wiring, are given
below:
Playing visual games
with children of a few months, e.g. by making
faces within 20 to 25 cm of the chid's eyes. Not
only will it amuse the child but very soon the
child will start copying by making similar faces.
That will ensure that the wiring of the brain
cells has been effectively accomplished. Another
visual game could be to have a few coloured
ribbons tied and kept near a window or a fan so
that the child could watch ribbons fly in the
breeze. Occasionally the fan could be stopped and
occasionally he could touch the ribbons. Those
ribbons will "speak" their own language
to the child and effectively wire some more brain
cells.
Mirror plays: In the
third or fourth month, a big unbreakable mirror
could be hung over the crib or on the side of the
crib, just out of his reach. The child will be
fascinated to see and control the response of the
reflection by just moving some parts of his own
body. He will soon come to various conclusions
that with one type of movement, the reflection
behaved in one way and for moving the reflection
in another way, he had got to move his body limb
in a particular fashion. That will teach the laws
of cause and effect to the child at that young
age and wire his brain cells accordingly.
Jingle bell music:
Attach small bells to a band on his wrist so that
the movement of the wrist jingles the bells and
those sounds fascinate him. Then you hold that
wrist and move it in a manner to create a
rhythmic music. Ask and help him to create some
sort of rhythmic sound sometimes. And sometimes
tie that band to one of his lower legs and watch
how he responds to the changes. Such a learning
exercise will connect and wire some more brain
cells in a meaningful manner.
Book handling: At 4
or 5 months let the child handle small booklets
with coloured printed material as much as he
wishes. Those books may soon become as toys and
then as friends. Wiring of the brain cells will
make the child book-friendly.
Visits: Most
rewarding experience comes to him visits to
shopping centres, zoo, busy play grounds,
musicals etc. before the age of two. From birth
till the age of two the child spends 20% of his
time staring at the world around him. Looking at
things which are on the move, interests him the
most. Music attracts him because it wires the
auditory brain cells effectively. His visits to
places which are most frequented by people
satisfies his visionary brain cells. If the visit
is leisurely and not fast moving, it allows the
child time to observe, analyse and digest
information more effectively and more completely.
And if, during such a visit, you continue talking
to him in complete sentences, explaining what he
sees, even if he cannot grasp half of what you
tell him, the results are stupendous. An hour
spent in this way, at age 2 or less, could be
equal to 20 hours spent that way at age 10. At
age 2 or less, millions of his brain cells are
availability of such cells may be only 5% of what
it was at age 2. You must find time to take him
out to such places between the ages of 1 and 2,
almost once a week. And if, for some reasons, he
occasionally becomes the centre of attraction
during such visits, the fall out could be
enormous. According to Milton in Paradise
Regained, "The childhood shows the man, as
morning shows the day". Let your child show
his brilliance in his childhood even.
These are some of the
example of stimulating the brain cells for creating a
meaningful wiring system. Many other games or occasions
could be organised by devoted parents in those
impressionable months.
Organic and hormonal causes can also affect the
intelligence quotient. Organic cause could be physical
brain damage caused by insufficient oxygen reaching his
brain during birth. Hormonal cause could be due to
deficient functioning of the thyroid gland. Results of
these causes could be minimised by early diagnosis and
proper treatment.
This site would be best viewed on a Netscape 4.0 Gold or above and Microsoft IE 4.0 or above with screen settings of 800 x 600 and true colors option checked.
